NBA

9:06 PM ET After leading the Milwaukee Bucks to the franchise’s first NBA championship in 50 years, coach Mike Budenholzer has agreed to a three-year contract extension, sources told ESPN. Budenholzer — who was entering the final year of his deal — now ties himself to the Bucks through the 2024-25 season. His extension punctuates

2:05 PM ET LOS ANGELES — As fans look to find ways to remember Kobe Bryant this week — with the late Lakers star’s birthday Monday followed by the date on the calendar that commemorates his uniforms Tuesday, 8/24 — a blockchain company has found another way to honor Mamba forever. Cryptograph, a digital collectibles

Kanye West dropped a reference to the No. 24 jersey in his lyrics, rapping on Jay-Z and T.I.’s “Swagga Like Us,” “Tryin’ to get that Kobe number, one over Jordan.” From the moment he came into the league, Bryant paid homage to the greats who came before him. Now it’s current NBA players who pay

7:56 PM ET ESPN News Services Boston Celtics forward Josh Richardson has agreed to a one-year, $12 million extension, his agent Bill Duffy of BDA Sports told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Richardson had one year and $11.5 million left on his deal, which now runs through the 2022-2023 season. The Celtics acquired Richardson from the Dallas

4:54 PM ET Associated Press J.R. Smith is finally getting the college-athlete experience he missed out on nearly two decades ago. The 16-year NBA veteran who skipped college basketball, won two world championships and made millions is now a freshman walk-on for the North Carolina A&T men’s golf team. Now, instead of first-class cross-country travel

7:16 AM ET How has the NBA’s landscape changed after the draft and free agency? The biggest shocker came on draft night, when the Los Angeles Lakers sprung a deal with the Washington Wizards to land former MVP Russell Westbrook. The move created the league’s newest superstar Big Three of Westbrook, LeBron James and Anthony

9:34 PM ET Tyler Smith, the No. 8 basketball prospect in ESPN’s Class of 2023, has signed with Overtime Elite, he told ESPN on Sunday. “This is different and new,” Smith said. I wanted to be a pro already, working on stuff that NBA players work on. In high school you can’t work out as

1:20 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN The Boston Celtics and center Robert Williams have agreed to a four-year, $54 million contract extension, agent Kevin Bradbury of REP1 Sports told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Friday. The deal will put Williams, 23, among the top half of centers in the NBA in terms of annual salary and is

3:06 PM ET Associated Press MIAMI — The Miami Heat announced Friday that all employees must be in the process of becoming fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Sept. 1. Exemptions will be available for those awaiting a second dose of a two-shot vaccine or those with “a qualifying medical condition or a sincerely held religious

8:42 PM ET Associated Press KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — What David Stern did for the sport of basketball transcended any gender bias and opened a whole new world for women in the game. NBA commissioner from 1984 to 2014, Stern was the key figure in the formation and operation of the WNBA in 1997. That bold

4:17 PM ET The Brooklyn Nets, the consensus favorites to win the title, opened at a league-best 54.5 wins at Caesars Sportsbook after the NBA released its full 2021-22 schedule on Friday. The defending champion Milwaukee Bucks are next at 53.5. The Bucks host the Nets on opening night, Oct. 19. Milwaukee is an early

5:00 PM ET The NBA schedule is here. And unlike last season’s unveiling that broke games into first and second halves, we know all 1,230 games up front. The 2021-22 season tips off on Oct. 19 with the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks hosting the Brooklyn Nets on ring night. The last time these two Eastern

5:36 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN Kevin Garnett will become the 24th player in Boston Celtics history to have his jersey retired on March 13, when Boston will host the Dallas Mavericks at TD Garden at 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC. Garnett, who won the 2008 title with the Celtics, spent six seasons of his Hall

3:36 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN A trio of return games for All-Star point guards Russell Westbrook, Kyle Lowry and Kemba Walker highlights the NBA’s full schedule release Friday afternoon. Westbrook will head back to Washington with the Los Angeles Lakers on March 19, about a week after the teams meet in Los Angeles on March

9:00 AM ET Who are the NBA free agents to watch in 2022 and 2023? Most of the league’s superstars have signed long-term extensions with their current teams, leading some league executives to call 2022 “The Offseason of the Rotational Players.” Still, superstars like Bradley Beal, James Harden, Kyrie Irving and Russell Westbrook could become

4:25 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN LeBron James took to Twitter to react to ESPN’s offseason survey of 10 NBA scouts and executives leaving him without a single vote for the title of best player in the NBA. James responded to a tweet sarcastically saying he was washed-up as a player, then sent out a separate

4:20 PM ET ESPN News Services The Dallas Mavericks are hiring two-time WNBA champion Kristi Toliver as an assistant coach, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Toliver has previous NBA coaching experience. She spent parts of two seasons as an assistant on the Washington Wizards’ staff. Toliver is currently playing for the Los Angeles Sparks where

7:20 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN The past two seasons have seen the NBA — like the rest of the world — deal with unprecedented circumstances. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused as much upheaval across the NBA as any sports league in North America and beyond, with the 2019-20 season ending in a bubble inside the